We are living in an ecological crisis and we need to take serious action to fight plastic waste.
Trying to tackle the global environmental disaster can feel overwhelming, so where do we start?
Making sustainable changes can be daunting. Changing routines and behaviours takes time, and sustainable options may appear to be expensive and impractical, however they don’t need to be!
If you are wondering how you can change your daily routines to be kinder to the planet, a great place to start your sustainable journey is in the bathroom, so here are 4 top tips to make your bathroom more eco-friendly.
1. Cut the plastic, ditch the single use
We are surrounded by plastic in our bathrooms which adds up to a lot of waste. In fact, around 30,000 tonnes of recyclable bathroom items end up in landfill every year, and so there are easy swaps you can make to cut down on your plastic waste.
Try and avoid single use plastics, things like floss, disposable razors, toothbrushes, wipes, cotton wool, cotton buds are predominantly plastic and will only end up in landfill or make their way into the oceans after use.
I have found double cleansing, using reusable make up pads and opting for zero waste packaging are easy eco bathroom swaps, and can save mountains of plastic waste.
Check out Wearth London and Peace with the Wild, as they offer a variety of products to help reduce the amount of single waste plastic in your bathroom.
2. Swap to zero waste/sustainable products
We wouldn’t usually think twice about checking the ingredients in our bathroom products; however it might not just be the plastic packaging of products we need to worry about. For example, microplastics are intentionally added to all kinds of products including: deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, lipstick, hair dye, shaving cream, moisturizers, hair spray, facial masks, baby care products, eye shadow, mascara and more. In some cases, these products are made of more than 90% plastic!
‘Naked’ products such as shampoo and conditioner bars, moisturiser bars, deodorant bars and soaps are easy eco swaps for your bathroom to cut down on plastic waste.
Opting for products made from bamboo, wood, metal, porcelain and recycled plastic are much more sustainable for the planet as well.
3. Get creative, make your own products and go natural
If you’re feeling creative, why not try making your own bathroom supplies? There are some really easy ideas to make your own bathroom products using natural ingredients, Pintrest is a great place for inspiration with loads of great recipes from bath bombs to body scrubs.
They don’t require a huge amount of skill, time or expensive ingredients. For example, I now use a simple mix of sugar, coffee grounds, coconut oil and essential oils to make a wonderful body scrub, not only does it smell amazing, it’s full of natural ingredients, it makes your skin feel super soft and at £2 per 300g jar, it definitely doesn’t break the bank!
You could even look for natural alternatives to bathroom products as some products can replace multiple items in your bathroom cabinet, cutting down on unnecessary bottles/tubes. Coconut oil is renowned for its versatility, and can be used as a moisturiser, make up remover, mouthwash, eczema cream, hair treatment, deodorant and cuticle oil.
4. Watch your water usage
There are some simple measures that can go a long way to reduce water and energy waste in the bathroom. The easiest way to save water is to take showers instead of baths, as the average eight-minute shower uses 62 litres of hot water compared with 80 litres for the average bath (The Guardian), and so by showering you could save at least 20 litres of water each time.
However, if you want to take it even further you could monitor your shower time to spend less time under the water, take cooler showers that use less energy, switch the water off whilst you wash, and collect shower water to recycle for your plants or garden
It is not easy to completely rehaul your bathroom behaviours, however I do hope the above tips provide some inspiration to make sustainable swaps and changes that are easy to integrate into your bathroom routine!
By Ella Messenger ©